Back-to-school shopping turned out to be a thrill for 13-year-old Elisha Ellison as he joined 29 other students for a free shopping spree Tuesday at the Target store on Kent\u2019s East Hill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was a pretty cool chance to get school clothes,\u201d said Ellison, of Renton, who had T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts and cargo pants in his shopping cart, funded by an $80 gift card provided by Target to each student through the Salvation Army. \u201cI need some.\u201d<\/p>\n
Target donated more than $26,000 to the Salvation Army for more than 300 students to shop for school clothes at 11 stores in the Puget Sound area. Nationwide, the store chain has given nearly $1 million to the Salvation Army to help nearly 12,000 children pay for school clothes and supplies at 500 Target stores.<\/p>\n
Shirley Harris, service coordinator for the Salvation Army\u2019s South King County emergency-service center in Kent, said the students were selected because of their participation, or their families\u2019 involvement, at the local branch. The Kent center also serves the communities of Auburn, Algona, Pacific and Covington.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all found what they needed,\u201d Harris said of the 30 students ages 5 to 17 who participated in the shopping spree. \u201cNo one said they haven\u2019t found something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Target also provided the students with snacks and drinks after shopping.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at them, not one child is not happy,\u201d Harris said as she watched the children excitedly eating in the cafe.<\/p>\n
Nevaeh Moseley, 9, of Kent, struggled a bit to find the items she wanted. She looked for pink pants, but didn\u2019t see any among the many racks of clothes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found some,\u201d Moseley said as she spotted some gray pants that she thought might work for her.<\/p>\n
Moseley ended up with an umbrella, shoes and pants in her cart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tiring,\u201d she said, of shopping.<\/p>\n
Mosely also became a bit nervous when she spotted a newspaper photographer taking her photo.<\/p>\n
\u201cPaparazzi,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
Volunteer chaperones escorted the students around the store.<\/p>\n
Liz Petersen, of Auburn, came away impressed with how Ellison shopped.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good shopper,\u201d Petersen said. \u201cHe found $4 T-shirts. He was all over the sales rack.\u201d<\/p>\n
This marked the second year Target has offered the shopping spree for youngsters preparing for school, and the first time the Kent store has been involved. Last year, students from the Kent area had to travel to a Bellevue store to participate.<\/p>\n
Cheryl Richards, a front-end manager at the Kent Target, enjoyed watching the kids enter the store for the big shopping trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a ton of enthusiasm,\u201d Richards said. \u201cWe let them in the store about 5 to 10 minutes early. Thirty kids got $80 cards and it was fun to see the joy on the kids\u2019 faces because they were so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris said the donation by Target helped a lot, but the Salvation Army could use even more donations to its Kent center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like the community to remember we always need donations,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe are running low on school supplies. We also need bell ringers, which is our biggest fundraiser.\u201d<\/p>\n
To donate or volunteer to the Kent office of the Salvation Army, call Harris at 253-852-4983. For the Salvation Army Web site, go to www.salvationarmyusa.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Back-to-school shopping turned out to be a thrill for 13-year-old Elisha Ellison as he joined 29 other students for a free shopping spree Tuesday at the Target store on Kent\u2019s East Hill.
\n\u201cI thought it was a pretty cool chance to get school clothes,\u201d said Ellison, of Renton, who had T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts and cargo pants in his shopping cart, funded by an $80 gift card provided by Target to each student through the Salvation Army. \u201cI need some.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":9611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-9610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9610"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}